D&D (2024) 2024 Wings

[Vael]

We have flying PCs so, tbh, this doesn't bother me on that level. TBH, I just don't like a cantrip granting a permanent physical change like this ... I'd sooner make this a feat or supernatural gift.

 

[Yaarel]

Minor update of the Original Post, to clarify the need to fly (or else fall), plus capitalizing terms like "Action" for recent UA formating standards.

 

[Incenjucar]

I'm much more comfortable with a species with flight than a cantrip. A species with flight changes that species, a cantrip with flight changes everything that can access a cantrip.

 

[CleverNickName]

I'm much more comfortable with a species with flight than a cantrip. A species with flight changes that species, a cantrip with flight changes everything that can access a cantrip.

Yep. At that point you might as well add booms of flying, flying carpets, and jetpacks to the adventuring equipment list.

Not that there's anything wrong with that (and there's even a fantasy precedent for it, with a certain magical world that features flying brooms for sale in town), but it will fundamentally change the way the game is played.

 

[Vaalingrade]

The thread is about Wings and flight at level 1.

I am also including a Waterbreathe cantrip here. Similarly, there are races that breathe water at level 1. With regard to balance, waterbreathing is appropriate at low levels. The official 5e Water Breathing spell is an old school legacy spell at slot 3. Now that cantrips exist, the spell works better as a cantrip.



WATERBREATHE
Primal, transmutation cantrip
Casting Time: 1 action
Range: Self
Components: S, M (fish gill scales)
Duration: 1 hour

You can additionally breathe water and gain a swim speed equal to your walk speed. Choose at least one cosmetic fishlike characteristic, such as gills, scales, webbed hands, fish tail in place of legs, or so on.

At Higher Levels. At level 3, your spell range becomes 30 feet, and you can target a number of willing creatures up to your proficiency bonus. As a bonus action a target can dispel the effect on oneself. If you cast the cantrip again, any earlier casting ends.

Whoa there.

It is D&D TRADITION that underwater adventuring be arduous and thoroughly obnoxious while having just a pile of cool as hell monsters to trick the DM into making the huge mistake of making PCs going into the water.

 

[Yaarel]

I'm much more comfortable with a species with flight than a cantrip. A species with flight changes that species, a cantrip with flight changes everything that can access a cantrip.

Flying is such an important magic archetype. People have dreams where they are flying.

D&D is constantly trying to introduce flight in level 1, such as the 5e Aarakocra and Fairy.

There needs to be a safe way to do this at level 1, while maintaining gaming balance.

Part the design goal of making Wings a cantrip, is to ensure flight really is balanced for low-level gameplay.

 

[Incenjucar]

Flying is such an important magic archetype. People have dreams where they are flying.

D&D is constantly trying to introduce flight in level 1, such as the 5e Aarakocra and Fairy.

There needs to be a safe way to do this at level 1, while maintaining gaming balance.

Part the design goal of making Wings a cantrip, is to ensure flight really is balanced for low-level gameplay.

Flight is transformative technology. Any society with access to it will be heavily defined by it. If the whole world can access it, the whole world is impacted by it and shaped by it.

Think of how much just being able to jump 5' in the air without much effort would change day to day life.

 

[Vaalingrade]

Any attempt at making flight balanced starts with changing the culture so DMs and theorists know what trees, buildings, caves and the concept of being part of a party that can't all do it are.

Plus monster design that diversifies more from 'big dumb thing that fights exclusively in melee' and 'loads of small dumb things that also fight exclusively in melee'. None of whom seem to know how to throw rocks or go inside.

 

[Ulorian - Agent of Chaos]

Note that Earth had a thicker atmosphere when Quetzalcoatlus was around. If Jurassic Park happened and Elon Musk genetically engineered a Quetzalcoatlus, it probably wouldn’t be able to fly today. To fly, you need enough lift to overcome your weight and enough thrust to overcome your drag. Fewer air molecules means less lift and less drag, but for a big heckin’ chonker like Quetzalcoatlus, weight is the much bigger issue.

Interesting statement. Do you have a link describing the density of the atmosphere in the Mesozoic?

 

[Vaalingrade]

If Elon Musk purchased enough scientific manpower the genetically engineer a Quetzal, it would only be able to hoarsely vocalize his praises as it drowns in the cancerous mass of its botched flesh.